


Forsaking

by Cryzice



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: 90 percent babyfic, Bad Parent Talia al Ghul, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Gen, I swear, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, M/M, at the end, tiny hints of Jason Todd/Dick Grayson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:15:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25803472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cryzice/pseuds/Cryzice
Summary: When Jason happens upon a baby in the midst of the League of Assassins, he gives up his revenge to give the baby a chance at a better life.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Hinted future Jason Todd/Dick Grayson, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne
Comments: 15
Kudos: 428
Collections: JayDick Summer Exchange 2020





	Forsaking

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eat0crow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eat0crow/gifts).



> I had a plan, but it didn't work out entirely, so this is what I have. There should also have been an ABO-element, but that didn't work out. Please enjoy it anyway.
> 
> There are some light hints at JayDick, but if you don't like that, it is possible to just interpret it as a brotherly relationship.

The League of Assassins has many secrets, as Jason has come to learn. The Lazarus Pit, for one. If people find out that there is a pit that can bring back the dead, nothing would stop them from either trying to resurrect their own loved one or try to become immortal. For another one, the League of Assassins also has a lot of stolen art and jewelry.

In the short amount of time he has spent with the League of Shadows, Jason has come across quite a few secrets that could have disastrous effects if they were told to the wrong persons – but of all things, Jason could never have guessed that one of those secrets would be a baby.

Jason is just walking down one of the countless hallways inside Nanda Parbat when he thinks he sees something in the corner of his eye and in a moment of absolute stupidity, stops to take a closer look.

The thing turns out to be back of possibly the tiniest ninja-assassin he has seen in his life. When Baby Ninja turns around, Jason can literally feel his heart stop at how adorable Baby Ninja is with his pudgy baby cheeks, tiny arms and sad eyes.

-” Mama?” Baby Ninja says, looking up at Jason with large, teary eyes that only monsters can resist (and the League of Assassins has a lot of monsters).

Before he can consider that it might not be the smartest idea to get involved, Jason has bent down beside Baby Ninja and picked him up, automatically putting him on Jason’s right hip.

Baby ninja looks surprised, looking around as if he has never been carried around this way. Considering where he is, it might not be far off to say that he never has been.

-” Let’s go find your mama, okay?” Jason says, lightly bouncing Baby Ninja the same way he used to bounce the kids he babysat for the neighbors when his mum was still alive and they lived in the shabby apartment.

-” Mama?” Baby Ninja says again, waving his tiny arms around wildly.

-” Yep, mama,” Jason repeats, looking around to see if he can find where Baby Ninja came from, but apparently Baby Ninja really is a ninja, because Jason can’t see any doors around them.” Do you know where your mama is?”

Maybe it’s weird to ask a baby, but it is not like there is anyone else around to ask, and sometimes babies are more aware than one might think, at least in Jason’s experience.

Baby Ninja looks up at, blinks his big eyes, and waves his hands in the direction Jason had been heading before he came across Baby Ninja.” Mama,” he repeats, trying to squirm out of Jason’s grasp.

Lacking any other suggestions, Jason starts walking down the hallway with possibly one of the cutest babies he has ever met perched on his hip.

After maybe half an hour of just heading down random halls, Jason finds Talia standing in the middle of a bunch of ninjas, her face resembling a dark thundercloud. She says something to one of the ninjas, who immediately scampers off in fear, before lifting her head and spotting Jason with Baby Ninja.

-” Damian!” she shouts, and freakingly in-sync, the ninjas turn around as one.

-” Mama! ”Baby Ninja shouts back, trying really hard to squirm out of Jason’s grasp now that he has found his Mama.

Jason just stands there like a dumb fool as Talia hurries over to them, pulling Damian from Jason once she is close enough.

-” Damian, I told you to stay in bed,” Talia says with a frown even as she hugs Baby Ninja closer.

Baby Ninja - Damian - just keep repeating” mama” and waving his tiny fists around wildly with a big smile on his face.

Jason has half a mind to just slip away like all the other ninjas, but Talia stops in right in tracks with a look. When she turns away and starts to head down one of the other hallways, Jason automatically follows her without question.

They end up in one of the hallways furthest away from where the” recruits” live in an area Jason has never been to before. Most of the room in Nanda Parbat that Jason has seen so far just have the absolute basics - a bunch of beds, a bathroom with a shower and toilette, some place to store clothes in -, but the room Talia brings them to is most obviously a kid´s bedroom.

There is a small bed with a moveable wall, a bookcase with a bunch of books, and a play area with a small number of toys. Other than that, though, Jason`s room in the Manor had more stuff in it.

Talia drops Damian off in the bed, pulling up the walls, to the obvious unhappiness of the baby, who starts crying the moment Talia pulls away and tries to reach for Talia again.

To Jason’s disgust, she just leaves him there and signals for Jason to follow her out of the room. After throwing a glance at the crying baby, Jason reluctantly leaves the room and chases after Talia, shutting the door after him.

Talia keeps walking down the hallway until they get to what Jason thinks might be Talia’s office. By the time Talia has sat down on one of the chairs, Jason has had enough time to get mad.

Under normal circumstances, he would try one of the tricks Talia insisted he learnt to calm himself down, but Jason feels like this might be the one time he cannot do that. B always tried to keep him away from cases that involved parents abusing their kids because he would always get so emotional and angry and when Jason gets angry, he tends to get physical. The Pit has not helped in that regard, unfortunately.

In Jason’s mind, there is never an excuse for mistreating your kid, whether that be abuse or neglect. The only thing stopping him from shouting Talia is the knowledge that she can beat him with just one move. 

-” I didn’t know you have a baby ninja,” Jason says, trying for a joke despise the voice in the back of his mind telling him to hurt Talia.

The right end of Talia’s lips twitches, but as always, Talia is a master of poker faces (just like B, the master of the stony silence and unhappy frowns). ” Damian tends to sneak out and run off,” Talia says. ” There has been some minor difficulties in finding a suitable nursemaid. So far, they have proven to be disappointments.”

Jason has half a mind to say that maybe she should be watching her kid, but then again, there has always been people who have hired helpers to watch their kids. With Talia’s” job” as an assassin and Ra’s” assistant”, maybe she does not have the time to watch Damian.

But then why does she not spend time with him when she is at home? He is her kid, damnit. Even B used to spend time with him and Dick when he was at home and not running after the Joker or one of the other rouges.

-” Have you considered spending some time with him?” Jason asks, already knowing by the frosty expression on Talia’s face that he is stepping in the middle of something he shouldn’t be. ” He was looking for you. He kept saying” mama” the entire time.”

There is the smallest of softening in Talia’s body language. Disappointedly, she says: ”there is no point in wasting time on Damian now. He will not remember anything, and his training will begin within the next year.”

-” His training?” Jason says, flabbergast. ” Isn’t that a bit early? He doesn’t look like he can even run. What is he supposed to learn, puppy eyes?”

Talia frowns, pressing her lips tightly together. ” Puppy eyes are not a suitable strategy for anyone to learn.”

Jason shrugs. ” Seems to work just fine for Dick. Even Deathstroke is not immune, I hear.”

If anything, Talia seems even less impressed and not in the slightest surprised. ”I see,” she says shortly. ” Richard has always had an impressive ability to wrap anyone around his little finger, even the ones he maybe shouldn’t.”

Jason has to actively refrain from rolling his eyes. It is not a secret that Talia and Dick do not like each other, but Jason has never figured out why. He could ask, but that would be incredibly stupid. So far, Talia has only helped him because he is B’s son, but her wiliness to help him only extends so far.

-” So where is his other parent? ” Jason asks. ” Shouldn’t they be helping out as well?”

Unbidden, he pictures Baby Ninja’s tiny face. With those big, round eyes and dark hair, he would fit in perfectly with B’s gang of adopted orphans, except, you know, he still has a parent, if largely absent. The green eyes might be enough to keep him apart from Jason and Dick. If anything, he would be even easier to pass off as B’s kid.

(Even though Jason’s eyes now have a greenish tint, but he refuses to acknowledge that. For all he knows, it might disappear.)

Talia frowns.” He is not available,” she says. ” There was no right time to tell him. He was grieving.”

This time, Jason frowns. Unbidden, he begins to feel what might be beginning of dread. There is something off about her language. ”It has been what, three years and you couldn’t tell him during any of that time?”

Talia looks at him with an unreadable expression. Jason has to actively stop himself from fidgeting, but even then, his fingers twitch.” His son died in a tragic accident,” she says, with a grimace.

Closing his eyes, Jason takes a deep breath. ” You’re talking about B, aren’t you?” He says. ” How is that even possible?”

-” Anything is possible for those with the right means,” Talia says cryptically.

It is not the explanation he expected - if anything, it is worse. Jason wants to throw up, but there is no trash can anywhere and he can’t throw up on one of the chairs. Ra’s would probably take any opportunity to kill him.

-” You have had three years to tell him that Damian exists,” Jason says.” He would do anything to protect him from Ra’s. He is going to hate you when he finds out.”

-” I expect he will,” Talia says. ” But there are things he will not teach Damian that Damian will need to know if he is to be next head of the League of Assassins.”

Jason can’t stop himself from gaping.” Are you insane?” he blurts out without a thought.” He is a kid! What is wrong with you?”

Talia just stares at him as if nothing is wrong.” He is the grandson of Ra’s Al Ghul and the son of Batman. His destiny is to rule, but before that, he needs to learn how to rule.”

It’s times like that Jason thinks the world is insane. What is wrong with these people that they think it is acceptable for 10-year-old kids to fight adults with lethal weapons and years of experience? Is there something in the water?

-” So what? He’s a literal baby. He can’t even feed himself without creating a mess,” Jason almost shouts.

Talia still doesn’t seem to understand his objections.” That is why his training has not begun yet. In another year or two, when he has learnt how to grasp and hold things, he will learn the basics of sword fighting and martial arts.”

He used to think Talia had at least some sense, but now he sees that she is at least just as crazy at the rest of them. There is no point trying to tell her anything, so he just gives up.

When he turns his back to her and storms out of the room to find some poor recruit to use as a living punching bag, Talia does not try to prevent him.

The next time Jason sees Baby Ninja/Damian is no more than a week later. Jason is in between teachers again, to Talia’s displeasure, as Jason” accidentally” broke his teacher’s leg after the teacher harassed one of the female recruits for being a woman. For the time being, until Talia can find a different teacher, he has been told to work on refining the skills he has and working on his stamina.

Hence, he has taken to walking down the hallways where he encountered Damian ( ~~to see if can come across Damian~~ ) because he cannot stand the other recruits.

So far, he has yet to see him, but maybe if he continues stalking these halls, maybe he will (unless Talia has found a babysitter who can actually keep Damian in his bed or locked the door. Jason would not be surprised if she has).

At first, he is just walking through the same halls for what must be the hundredth time, but somewhere halfway, he hears what sounds like a tiny sniffle and stops. He looks across the hall, but he can’t see any Baby Ninja, so eventually he walks a bit further down and scans the hallway for anything out of the ordinary.

After a few meters, the sniffles become louder, so he hurries a bit more even while he continues looking around everywhere.

Suddenly, there is a tiny baby in the middle of the hallway in nothing more than a pair of diapers and a middle-aged woman running after him much slower.

To Jason’s bewilderment, the baby is running towards him, now screaming his lungs out as loudly as he possibly can. Even more surprising is the handprint visible on his right arm, a handprint that seems like it could match the hand of the woman running after him.

Without thinking, Jason quickly snatches up Damian when he runs past with one hand and punches the woman with the other. She falls down onto the floor with a loud noise and tries to scrambles away as soon as she has regained her wits.

Jason glares at her and has half a mind to give her a good kick, but stops himself. ” Where is Talia?” he asks instead, almost taking pleasure in the way the woman suddenly looks alarmed.

-” Lady Talia is unavailable,” the woman says, throwing him a glare. ” She needed to take care of some rebels in one of the other compounds.”

Jason presses his lips together tightly. There is no point in telling this woman anything because she only does what Talia tells her. Anything Jason tells her will be disregarded and forgotten about within ten seconds.

-” Get lost,” Jason says, pointing down the hall with his thumb. “If Talia asks, you can tell her all her about the handprint. I’m sure she will be happy to hear that her son has your hand on his arm.”

The woman pales significantly, but does not say anything. When Jason waves his thumb, she presses her lips together and walks past him with as much of her pride as she can possibly summon.

He considers tripping her, just to see her fall on her face, but ultimately decides against it. It would be funny for five seconds, but then he wouldn’t be any better than any of Gotham’s rogues, to take pleasure from someone’s suffering. If she is trusted to care for the Demon Head’s grandson, she must be loyal to a fault, and according to B, only those who are indoctrinated from childhood are considered to be completely loyal.

~~The Joker~~ the Riddler would do it, and Jason is better than that.

Jason watches the woman until she disappears into one of the other halls, holding onto Damian with one hand and the other shoved in his pocket, clutching one of many knives Jason had learnt to always keep with at all times since Talia surprised him one morning with a sneak attack at five in the morning. If he had been anyone else, she would have killed him and be done with it, and no would have batted an eyelash.

As much as he hates to admit it, she had a point and carrying multiple daggers with him everywhere has helped him more than he feels comfortable.

And Talia wants that for her son, the child she always wanted to share with B. B may have taught them how to fight, but they “asked” him to make them a part of that life. If Jason had said that he didn’t want to, B would probably have found a normal home for him (and Alfred would have been saved a lot of tears and work).

Jason doesn’t, and that’s where the problem lies, doesn’t it? He knows the pain of this kind of life, and unlike Talia, he isn’t willing to let that happen to an innocent kid who had no choice in who he was born to. If that means he has to kidnap Damian and betray Talia, to give Damian a small chance to grow up loved ~~like Jason wanted to be~~ like he deserves, then he will have to find a way to make that happen.

But before any of that, he has a baby brother to care for, and the first step, it seems, is a change of diapers. This Jason has not looked forward to.

By the time Talia returns two months later, Jason is firmly entrenched in the position as Damian’s new carer. To say she is not happy would be an understatement, but once Jason explains what the nanny did, she doesn’t dig up some other ex-killer who should never be let within 5 miles of a baby, much less this baby.

On the other hand, Talia insists that he has to begin “training” Damian the same way B trained him, which is absolute bullshit, because both Dick and Jason were much, much older, but since she doesn’t actually bother to check what he is teaching Damian, Jason doesn’t care what she tells him.

Instead, they play games with whatever toys Talia has deigned satisfactory for Damian to keep. In total, that is a bat plushie, a few soft storybooks for kids that can actually read and that Damian doesn’t really care for except to throw across the room (because _kids_ ), and a miniature sword that Damian can’t even lift and should never be counted as a toy, so really it’s the bat plushie and the books.

Jason had more toys than that when he was Damian’s age, and his parents were a drug addict and a gang member. Damian’s parents are a who-knows-how-old assassin with golden swords and Bruce Wayne. He should have more toys than can be fit into a room, and yet, he has a single toy not meant for education.

When Jason gives Damian to B, he swears that he is going to make B buy all the _toys_ for Damian, and then they are all going to buy him more toys until Alfred will tell them that they are spoiling him...only for Dick to buy him more and try to hide it in the pile of other toys.

Because that is going to happen, mark his words. Jason will get Damian out of this place, where Talia isn’t around, Ra’s is insane and the world’s most absent grandfather, and the “sanest” person is a murdered 17-year-old who was brought back to awareness by a Lazarus pit. 

What Talia doesn’t know can’t hurt her, and what Talia doesn’t know is that a curious baby is very convenient to scope out the airfield in the back and other locations to identify the best way to get out of Nanda Parbat without notice.

The other workers aren’t very impressed by their presences, but once they see who it is, they turn away and pretend that it’s snowing in July. So far, not one person has dared to ask him to leave. It’s almost like being back at one of the balls B brought him to, where the staff acted like robots to not offend any of Gotham’s “blueblood” and the “blueblood” acted like they owned the place.

By the end of the evening, Jason had amassed enough gossip, rumors and blackmail material to fill up three notebooks. Well, he had organized it in three different notebooks depending on if it is gossip, rumor or blackmail, but the point still stands. B had been dismayed, but some of the information helped solve some of their cases, so who gives a damn?

Even Barbara was impressed with the thoroughness of the notes and added them to her notes, which was high praise. Dick used them to flirt with the only girls who weren’t interested in him, giving them covers against homophobic parents.

Thanks to that, Jason knows what airplanes the League of Assassins have, their schedules and destinations, and how to break into one without anyone noticing. The last part is the most difficult, since he has to simultaneously pick the door lock, make sure no one sees him and keep Damian occupied, with only two hands and two eyes.

He is still very satisfied with the fire on the other side of the airfield.

That is how Jason ends up crammed in the back of an airplane alongside boxes of priceless artefacts with Damian and a backpack with everything he thinks he might need all the way from Nanda Parbat to Hong Kong, where he knocks out the pilots and “borrows” one of the airports mini-cars to get to the main airport building.

Since he doesn’t have a passport or any valid documents, he can’t exactly go through passport control or anything, so he has to climb up the wall in a secluded area, run across the roof, and climb down on the other side - with a baby on his back.

It is much easier to pretend to bump into some random stranger, pick their pocket for their wallet (he may be rusty, but pickpocketing is like riding a bike - once you know it, you know it), and use the money to buy a picket to the center of Hong Kong. 

When Jason first started being Robin, B made sure that he memorized all the different locations of Batman’s international safehouses. At the time, there were only sixteen safe houses around the world, but by the time Jason died, that amount had increased to 38 as they needed them.

Hong Kong had three different safe houses in different areas. As B explained it then, Hong Kong attracts a lot of shady persons, most significantly members of the League of Assassins, Lady Shiva, and other people Jason doesn’t remember.

The point is, one of them is a basement “apartment” anyone can break into with a bunch of hidden compartments built into the walls. If B hasn’t changed too much, some of them should contain cash, both local and US dollars (in case of a bank crash), a credit card tied to an untraceable bank account tied to an overseas fake company and so forth, and hopefully, a small booklet with codenames and numbers to people with either special connections or with special skills.

Among them should be a few passport forgers or at least someone who knows someone who is. Or if not, someone who can smuggle him and Damian onto a plane to the USA for the right amount.

From the airport itself, it takes Jason a quarter to find the right way to the express train station and another ten to pickpocket enough well-dressed snobs to scrape together the expensive ticket all the way to Hong Kong station. 115 American dollars for an adult and almost 60 for a kid - that’s enough for at least ten trips from central Gotham to where Jason once lived.

At Hong Kong station, he pickpockets another half a dozen person in fancy suits and buys tickets to one of the more “suburban” areas of Hong Kong (or so B claimed, but as Jason has seen, his definition of suburban and Jason’s definition are very different).

Unfortunately, this is where his luck runs out. Firstly, he doesn’t actually understand much Chinese and can read even less. He has studied some, most common phrases, but not much writing. Secondly, he can’t quite remember the address of the safe house. It is quite understandable, considering that he is literally a zombie, but it doesn’t help very much.

There is something mortifying about walking around a neighborhood where at least half the population talks in a language you only vaguely understand. Jason can quite literally feel their eyes on him, the stranger with a baby, walking through their home.

Half an hour into his walk, one of the teenage girls stops him in his way. “Bed?” she asks with flawless British pronunciation.

Jason has half a mind to just keep walking, but if he can’t find the basement soon, he will have to go back to the station and look for one of the other safe houses where it will be much more difficult to blend in. “Safe?” he settles for.

The girl points at a building just behind him. It looks just like any other of the apartment complexes everywhere, except in one point - the corner has a painted yellow square on the left side of the front door.

Just like B described it.

Jason has to swallow down what may have become tears if Lady Luck hadn’t blessed him with his one shred of luck. “Xiexie,” he says clumsily.

The girl nods at him and disappears into one of the houses as if that was her only purpose, and with that, everyone else’s eyes turn away from him. 

Eventually, once he thinks he won’t suddenly burst into tears of relief, Jason checks that Damian is still sleeping and then heads for the basement apartment.

If B has kept the room the same way, there should also be a small fridge with some small food items and a bottle or two of clean water and a bed. The manager is paid to refill the fridge with the necessities and clean up when necessary, but other than that, there’s nothing much to it.

The only point with having a safe house like this is that practically anyone can walk in, grab some of the refreshments, take a nap on the bed, and then walk out the next morning without anyone looking too closely. The simpler it seems, the less it draws attention.

Jason stands out a bit more, on account of carrying around a baby, but the man standing just outside the building only stares at him for a split second and then disappears into what might be his office. By the time Jason is almost at the building, he has popped back out with a generic shopping basket full of treats and leaves it on what looks like a barbecue table.

After some back and forth on the dangers of trusting a stranger, Jason eventually has to admit that it might be best to grab some small stuff for Damian and the water bottle just in case.

With that done, he leaves the rest of the stuff in the basket and heads down the basement stairs. Like the building itself, the basement door has a painted yellow square on the left side, along with what Jason would call street graffiti in bright pink and orange. Noticeably, none of the graffiti is anywhere near the square, as if the painter made sure to not spray in that area.

When Jason grabs the handle and pulls, there is a slight squeaky noise like the door might need some oil - Alfred would never approve, pops into his head unbidden -, but it opens easily enough. The inside smells of dank, old air, but for a safe house, it is in reasonable shape. Jason would have done anything for a place like this during the time he was homeless.

The bed looks a bit spartan, more League of Assassins than Bruce Wayne, but it will do in an emergency. The lamp looks a bit flickery, but it works well enough to provide light so far. There also doesn’t seem to be any cockroaches or other bugs, so all in all, it is better than almost all the places Jason has lived in for a majority of his life.

Damian fusses a bit when Jason puts him down on the bed, trying to get out of the backpack Jason keeps him in, but goes back to sleep easily enough. Like this, he looks so innocent, as if his own mother did not plan to make into a weapon to turn against his dad, a father who doesn’t even know that he exists, much less that he is with Jason, his supposedly dead adopted son who came back to life somehow.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, where he puts all unnecessary thoughts, he wonders just how Talia can be okay with this. How can she be okay with potentially causing her own son so much pain? Jason knows exactly how painful the League of Assassins training can be, because he has experienced it, or at least parts of it, and it is no place for a child. B was an adult, and to some degree, Jason is as well.

The difference is, they asked for the training, knowing (full well) what it would mean, or at least think they know. Some days, Jason is amazed that he can even get up in the morning with how much pain he is in, and to think B did that. Jason has at least been trained some and knew a little bit how harsh the training would be, but did B really, or did Talia whisper lies in his ears as well?

This far along, there are some decisions Jason has made that he wonders if he would make had he been in a different state of mind. If Talia hadn’t told him about the new Robin and the Joker being alive, would he still have chosen to stay with the League of Assassins, or would he have gone home to B and begged for a place, no matter how small?

Some days, he wonders what B would have done if Jason just showed up at the Manor’s door. Would he have been happy? Or would he have sent Jason away? There had been days where B had been so happy that Jason was his son, and then there were days where they couldn’t stand each other.

If he shows up now, a killer with blood on his hands, would B take him back? He would accept Damian, for sure, but Damian hasn’t done anything.

It does make him pause for a moment.

Should he even bring Damian to B? B had his good moments, but he also had moments where it was like talking to a stone wall. Alfred tried, bless him, but he had his own issues, namely that he technically isn’t B’s dad, even if he sort of stepped into the role. That was the entire reason Dick left - B couldn’t communicate what he wanted to say and pushed Dick away at the possibly worst moment of all.

On the one hand, B is Damian’s dad, but on the other hand, doesn’t Damian deserve a dad who can actually talk to him without needing an interpreter? Talia has proven that she isn’t the mother figure to aim for, and if B is the way he was to Jason, then he has his own flaws.

Except where else can he go? He is legally dead, and dead people can’t get jobs or apartments or anything. On the other hand, he can’t go back now, because Talia will kill him, no matter how much she may find him amusing. Witness protecting is a joke for the League (and Batman, but no one needs to know about that), or he would have headed straight there.

Dick has a soft spot for kids. Maybe Jason could persuade him to take Damian, or at least do something about B? If nothing else, he could make a good brother, as long as he, you know, actually likes you. Damian may be Talia’s son, but Dick has never blamed a kid for what their parents have done. It’s not a secret that Dick wants kids, but maybe not this kid or at this age.

Well, if Dick isn’t interested, maybe Jason can persuade Barbara to get him some fake documents and let him take Damian somewhere else. It would be difficult - God knows Jason hasn’t had very good role models-, but if it means Damian is safe and happy, he would try. He would probably fuck up a bunch of times, but that’s what parents do. They fuck up, they learn, and they are better parents - or if they don’t, their kids end up like Jason.

Before all that, though, he should actually get to Gotham or Blüdhaven or wherever he ends up going to. If the first best plane to the US is to Blüdhaven, he might as well take it.

And in order to get there, he needs money and a passport, and that means going through the rooms for the hidden compartments B has installed in the walls.

To his surprise, though, contrary to his expectations, the compartments are actually surprisingly easy to find, even for someone who knows that they exist and how to look for them. Either B has redecorated while Jason was dead, or maybe some of that ninja training actually has a point to it.

Either way, whatever the cause, it only takes him a quarter to spot the first compartment, and from there, knowing what to look for, the other five take no more than five minutes altogether.

The first compartment holds what Jason guesses are Hong Kong dollars, Chinese yuan and American dollars. He pockets all the American dollars and the Hong Kong dollars, but leaves the yuan for whoever might come after him.

The second contains a tiny earpiece; he puts it back.

The third has three different credit cards and a small piece of paper with the codes for each printed in tiny letters. He pockets the first one and leaves the other two in the box.

The fourth contains three different tiny books with names, locations and numbers to “important people” (aka smugglers, passport forgers or people who know smugglers and passport forgers). Jason rips out a few blank pages from the back of one and writes down the names of a handful, in case one or two has retired.

The fifth compartment contains what looks like a small phone, a black flip phone like the ones they used when Jason was still Robin, unlike the newer phones that can be seen everywhere. Jason puts it in his jeans pocket, in case he needs it.

The last compartment has a list of addresses for apartments and buildings in maybe fifty countries around the globe. Jason stares at it for a moment, but puts it back in the box.

With the money, the phone and the list of people, Jason has found everything he needs in this place, so he takes a nap for a quarter, the longest period of times he dares to relax, and feeds Damian a few pieces of dried fruit before he puts the backpack back on and heads out the door.

The manager isn’t there, but the basket is still there. On the way past, Jason pulls out a few of the Hong Kong dollars and stuffs them among the packs of goodies. If nothing else, it makes him feel a bit better to have paid for his goods, even though he knows that B pays the manager for everything and a little bit more.

Within the next forty-two hours, he hunts down one of the passport forgers, pays a ludicrous amount for two fake passports with the credit card, buys two plane tickets for the first flight to Blüdhaven, and spends the next sixteen hours in a crammed metal container with a baby who does not like being there and has no issues expressing it.

There’s a saying in Gotham, and it goes like this: “at least it’s not Blüdhaven”. No matter how shitty or terrible or crazy Gotham is, at least it is not Blüdhaven.

Gotham is just bad in general, but Blüdhaven is bad in a completely different way. It may not have the crazies Gotham has - The Joker, the Riddler, Bane, Poison Ivy, and so forth -,but it makes it up for it with the fatal drugs, the police corruption that is on a completely different level from Gotham, the gangs and crime families, and a population that has just grown used to a life that way.

When Dick “moved” there and Nightwing appeared seemingly out of nowhere, something appeared to change - but whether for the bed or worse depends on who you ask. The criminal activity didn’t lessen because there was suddenly a vigilante running around - it was just driven elsewhere.

Jason can only remember going to Blüdhaven once for some “brother activity” Alfred insisted they do and they were both too afraid of Alfred to say no, despite not exactly wanting to spend time together. The plan was to go to an arcade or something, but it was pouring, and Dick’s knee was acting up, so they got pizza in Dick’s seriously filthy apartment and watched some random TV series.

Then Dick somehow convinced Jason to “help” him clean up, only to complain about how his knee hurt so much until Jason felt bad enough that he did almost all the cleaning. When Alfred showed up to drive Jason back, he was mildly impressed that it was vaguely clean - until Jason said that he did most of it because Dick’s knee hurt.

To say he was not impressed would be an understatement. He pretty thoroughly chewed Dick out for lying and being “a bad host”.

The next time, Alfred insisted that they went somewhere else on a “boys trip”, so they went skiing, except Jason had never gone skiing before, so he fell almost the entire time until he was so fed up he went to the cabin and swore he would never ski ever again. Somehow, Dick still managed to convince him to try again, with almost the same result.

Before they left, though, they did take a photo together, perhaps the only photo that ever shows them even being slightly friendly towards each other. Jason only remembers the experience because Talia forced him to ski down a mountain and Jason had learnt something from that time.

According to Talia, Dick still lives and works in Blüdhaven, as a cop of all things. So many jobs to choose between that would be better for a vigilante, and he chose to be a cop. It’s almost like he wrote a list of the worst possible jobs ever on lots and drew one at random from a hat. 

Stupid job aside, he’s apparently had some success cleaning up Blüdhaven. Talia rarely praises anyone, especially Dick, but she has once expressed her annoyance at Dick’s successes.

Unfortunately, Talia did not mention where Dick lives or operated from, most likely because she doesn’t really care, but that does mean Jason has to figure out a way to get in touch with Dick without alerting every ninja in the nearest area somehow.

Positively, they pass the passport check without an issue and head for the food court, where Jason buys the first greasiest pizza he can find and gets Damian what may very well be Damian’s first ice cream ever. Quite understandably, Damian does not like the ice cream at first, but once he tries some of the colorful sprinkles the vendor gave for free, he can’t seem to get enough of it.

To Jason’s disappointment, the pizza is not at all welcomed. Damian spits out the first bite and refuses a second bite. In hindsight, it might not even be a good idea to let Damian try, since he’s still a baby, even if he may be a ninja baby. Feeling bad about it, Jason buys Damian a second ice cream with sprinkles once Damian has eaten half a bottle of the baby food Jason brought from the League.

Then it is off into the real Blüdhaven and try to figure out a way to find Dick before it gets too late and they have to find a hotel.

When Jason and Damian are leaving Blüdhaven airport, for the second time in his second life, Lady Luck decides to smile at Jason.

Almost the second Jason walks through the exit doors, there’s the sound of a choked gasp and a hoarse “Jason?” just right in front of him.

Instinctually, Jason freezes in the middle of a step and looks up to see what has to be the most exhausted-looking Dick Grayson Jason has ever seen.

-” Dick,” comes out of his mouth before he can stop it, to his embarrassment.

For a guy who looks like he hasn’t slept in the last two weeks, Dick somehow still manages to light up like the sun - and then turn into a raincloud two seconds later. It’s enough to give Jason a sense of emotional whiplash. “How are you alive?” he asks frantically, almost desperately. “Did B lie? Where have you been?” 

By now, more than a few other people have started staring at them and some already seem to be talking about them, judging by the way some of them are whispering to their friends. At least no one tries to push him, but that may be because they can see Damian’s tiny head poking up from his back and care more about a random stranger than the entire League cares about the grandson of their leader.

In a sudden flash of what can only be described as absolute craziness, Jason pulls off his backpack and shoves Damian onto Dick, who goes googly-eyed and clutches Damian more like a bag of potatoes than a baby. Granted, Jason did kind of, maybe throw Damian at him without warning, but he’s a vigilante with tons of experience dealing with kids.

In his defense, Dick is too busy cooing at Damian to ask any more question, so Jason counts it as one point to him.

On the other hand, Dick is so taking with Damian that he doesn’t seem to notice anything else around them, to the surrounding persons’ unhappiness.

Eventually, Jason has to pull at Dick’s sleeve pretty harshly to get his attention. “We need to get out of here,” he says when Dick finally notices and looks at him. “I’ll explain everything, but not here, okay?”

From being so entranced by a baby, Dick focuses in the blink of an eye. “My apartment is half an hour away, or we could get a hotel room,” he says. “I was supposed to do something else here, but it’s too late now.”

-” Would you mind if we go to your apartment?” Jason says. “You’re probably going to need something to punch, and I don’t think you want to trash a hotel room.” Jason doesn’t care, but he doesn’t have a reputation to think of. It has nothing to do with the fact that Dick looks seriously thin and like he could use three grandmothers to fatten him up or anything.

-” If you say so,” Dick says hesitantly. “We can get a cab, but it’s cheaper to take the bus. It’s just a bit slower.”

As much as Jason is bothered by that -isn’t Dick supposed to be a cop? Don’t they get paid? What happened to the trust fund B set up? -, Jason decides to not ask in public. “There’s a bunch of money in the bag,” he settles for instead. “The quicker, the better, I think.”

Dick looks at him weirdly, but just checks the pocket Jason points at and pulls out a whole bunch of 20 dollars and 50 dollars notes. “Did you rob a bank or something on the way here?” he asks, stuffing the notes back into the pocket.

Jason shrugs. “Or something,” he says. “Can we go now? I think it’s bedtime for Damian soon.”

Dick steps out of the way and gestures for Jason to go first. With the way he’s holding Damian, there is no way he can juggle flagging down a cab or anything really. In fact, it doesn’t look comfortable at all.

In a moment of absolute pity, Jason grabs onto Damian and pulls him out of the backpack, instead settling the kid on his hip like it’s a habit. It is a habit by now, but he’s not going to tell Dick that any time soon, if ever. 

Dick blinks at him, opening his mouth like he’s going to say something, but at Jason’s glare, decides not to say anything. “Okay then,” he says with a hint of laughter for the first time. “I will just go get us a cab then.”

-” You do that,” Jason says, not at all embarrassed even though he can feel the tip of his ears turn red. “The faster you get a cab, the faster I will explain.”

In the end, it takes Dick no more than a few minutes to flag down a cab for them, get everyone in the backseat, and tell the cab driver an address to wherever Dick now lives. The drive itself takes half an hour and costs 65 dollars in total with tips.

Dick’s apartment lies in what could very easily be just any street in Gotham - dirty, poor, unsafe. If Jason didn’t know they were in Blüdhaven, he would have guessed it was a normal street in Gotham.

They have to take the stairs to the fifth floor because the elevator is broken. By the time they get to the top, Jason thanks Talia for making him train so much, or else he would have been exhausted by the third floor. As it is, he is just grateful that they don’t have to climb any more stairs.

To no surprise at all, Dick’s apartment is pretty exactly how Jason remembers the last one - socks and pants on the floor, towers of paper that the smallest breeze can knock over with disastrous effect, a tower of bowls and spoons from past mealtimes, the same yellow couch they shared a pizza on years ago.

-” It’s a little bit messy,” Dick says with a small shrug. “We can probably fix something up for Damian.”

Jason has half a mind to call Dick out for his mess, but considering how exhausted he still looks and how his wrists are just a bit too thin for Jason’s taste, he figures that there will be a better time to bring up Dick’s definition of “messy”. If nothing else, he can let it slip to Alfred and Alfred will send Dick some home-made meals for reheating or something.

While Jason tries to find somewhere to sit down without destroying Dick’s “order”, Dick disappears into what Jason guesses is the bedroom and comes out with a drawer and a whole bunch of blankets with various cartoon heroes on. From just a short glance, Jason recognizes three Superman blankets, one Wonder Woman blanket, one Batman blanket, two Robin blankets, and a slightly tattered Nightwing blanket.

Surprisingly, the Batman blanket is at the very bottom.

-” You can have the bed if you want. I can take the couch,” Dick says, putting the box down and starting to arrange the blankets. “We can take shifts watching Damian, or I can do it. I usually don’t sleep very long anyway, so it doesn’t bother me.”

-” Or we can share the bed and take shifts,” Jason says, finally settling down on the floor. “Damian usually doesn’t wake up a lot during the night, but if he has a nightmare, he likes to snuggle a bit before going to sleep again.”

Dick looks up at him strangely. “Does he have a lot of nightmares then?” he says.

-” I don’t think so, but I don’t really have anything to compare to,” Jason says carefully. “He had more in the beginning, but I think that was due to his situation.”

-” What situation?” Dick asks.

Jason pauses for a second. “His mum wasn’t around that much,” he says. “Until me, I think he had a new nanny every half a year or so. Ninjas aren’t really meant to raise kids, you know?”

There is a long, awkward silence.

-” Ninjas? Or assassins?” Dick says.

Somewhere in the back of Jason’s head, Jason imagines, there is a big flashing red light with the words “Abort” on it. “Assassins, but he’s a Baby Ninja,” Jason says, adding the last part in a flash of what has to be one more moment of stupidity.

Dick just stares at him like he can’t believe what Jason said. Jason can’t believe what he just said. “Baby Ninja?” Dick says slowly. “What does that mean?”

-” He looked like a ninja when I found him and he’s a baby, so Baby Ninja,” Jason says, feeling more and more stupid the longer Dick stares at him.

-” Jay, who is Damian?” Dick says, finally finishing arranging the blankets. “How did you find him, and why did you bring him here? What is really going on?”

-” I said I would tell you once Damian is asleep,” Jason says. “Damian isn’t asleep yet, is he?”

Dick doesn’t look very happy, but he doesn’t try to force Jason to answer any questions, perhaps because he realizes that Jason won’t give him any answers. Or maybe he doesn’t want to hear the answers just yet. The more Jason spends time with him, the more utterly exhausted and just plainly tired Dick looks.

As Jason slowly lowers Damian into the makeshift “crib” and rearranges the blankets to more evenly surround him, Dick disappears into the kitchen and comes back out with two bowls of the sugary cereal Jason has ever seen in his life, sitting down next to Jason on the floor.

The nostalgia and disbelief hit him hard enough to almost make him feel like crying. Somehow, he got here, to something almost like safety, from the League of Assassins’ stronghold without killing someone or being caught. What are the odds of that? Probably pretty much zero, and yet here he is, shoveling down something he thought he might never taste again.

If Dick sees him dry his eyes on his sleeves, he doesn’t say anything, just shoves down the cereals one spot after another mechanically like he knows that he has to eat, but doesn’t particularly enjoy it. 

By the time Jason has finished his bowl, Dick still has half a bowl left, but the second Jason puts his bowel down, Dick is there to carry both of them to the kitchen without a word. If the alarm bells weren’t already ringing, they would be by now.

It’s a universal truth that Dick Grayson loves cereals and would gladly have them for every meal if he could, as long as he can switch between types. The only times he doesn’t eat cereal is when he’s either dying or someone else died. 

Last time Jason experienced it was when B almost died after a fight with Bane.

When Dick comes back, he has to relocate some of his paper towers elsewhere in order to make space for them to sit on the couch. To Jason’s surprise, Dick just dumps all of them on top of already swaying paper towers without a care in the world.

For half a second, Jason considers saying that they should have this conversation tomorrow, but he’s pretty sure that Dick wouldn’t agree to that. On the other hand, there is one more way he can postpone the conversation for at least a minute or two.

\- “Have you got any extra plushies lying around?” Jason blurts out.

Dick blinks slowly, staring at Jason as if Jason just spoke in some foreign language. “Plushies?” he asks. “Probably somewhere, but I would have to go look.”

\- “Damian doesn’t really have any that many plushies,” Jason says. “His mum didn’t want him to play much. It’s outrageous, right?”

Every so slowly, Dick seems to realize what Jason is hinting at. “You’re right,” he says, with a carefully restrained note. “That is outrageous. We should fix that.” So said, Dick gets up and heads to his bedroom, where he starts to rummage through what Jason can only politely call “a mess”. 

After maybe a few minutes, Dick comes out again with not just one plushie, but three plushies – one Nightwing still in the plastic wrapping, one Superman that has seen better days with a few threads poking out and some stuffing halfway out, and one Batman that has some grayish areas like it’s been somewhere dusty.

\- “Which one do you think?” Dick asks, shaking the Batman plushie to get rid of some of the dust. “I don’t have a Robin right now, but I can get one tomorrow. Until then, these are what I got.”

Jason has to bite his tongue until he can taste blood to keep from saying what he really thinks about that. “Well, I don’t think you should give him your Superman plushie, to start with,” he says carefully. “You might need it.”

Dick gives him a strange look, as if he doesn’t hug the plushie whenever he needs some cheering up and B is being a bastard. Alfred has even specifically asked that Jason doesn’t tease Dick about needing a Superman plushie for bad days, but Dick probably doesn’t know that.

Or that Jason ~~has~~ had a Wonder Woman plushie for the exact reason. If he works for Dick, then it should work for Jason as well, right? The first time was sort of weird, but apparently there is a reason why even grown adults have them.

\- “I guess that leaves either Nightwing or Batman,” Dick finally says. “If you insist that I can’t give him the Superman plushie, that is.”

Jason considers it. “I think, “he says slowly, “that he should get the Nightwing plushie. Because Nightwing is pretty awesome, right? And it’s new and not dusty.”

If Jason doesn’t mention that there might be a teeny-tiny tear in Dick’s eye, then maybe it is not there. “Yeah, he is,” Dick says, turning the Nightwing plushie round and round distractedly. “I was just going to give it away to one of the orphanages or something, but I think this is better.”

\- “So that he knows big brother will always be there,” Jason says. “Because you will be, right? When I can’t be and B isn’t.”

Dick frowns. “Why wouldn’t you be there?” he asks suspiciously.

Jason just shrugs. “Talia is probably pissed that I kidnapped her son. Ra’s has never liked me, so he will just be glad to get rid of me. And you know, maybe I will be somewhere else. Maybe I will be in space.”

It is only when Dick flinches that Jason realizes what he just said. His cheeks turn red almost automatically.

Before Dick can get any further than “Jay, I”, Jason pretty much blurts out, “I don’t blame you.” When Dick doesn’t try to interrupt him, he continues. “You were busy with your friends, and it wasn’t like we were particularly close or anything. You wanted to get out of Gotham, away from B, and I understand that. Neither of us wanted a brother, and B trying to force it wasn’t fair to either of us.”

\- “Do you know the last thing I talked to my parents about before they died was?” Dick asks. When Jason shakes his head, he continues: “I asked my mum for a brother. I played a lot with other kids whenever we stopped somewhere, but I always knew we would have to leave a few days later. The other performers were fun, but they had to work as well, and as much as I love Zitka, she’s an elephant, not a human. If I had a brother, I could play with them and teach them what my parents taught me, so I asked my mum for a brother. I told my mum I would take of him and always be there. She said she would talk to my dad, but she was smiling, so I thought I had convinced her.”

\- “And then they died and there was no brother, ” Jason says.

\- “And then they died and there was brother,” Dick says. “After they died, I didn’t want a brother anymore. B didn’t have a girlfriend or wife, and I was fine with that. Then I, Donna, Roy, Wally and Garth created the Titans, and I didn’t need a brother, because I had all of them and later all the other Titans.

\- “One day, Donna came to my room with a newspaper. The headline was something like “Gotham’s Prince Adopts Another Child” or something, and I was so surprised that I couldn’t say anything. Bruce didn’t even send a text or email or asked Alfred to call. So I looked at the most recent Gotham news, and guess what I found. A new Robin, a new kid wearing my colors. I don’t even remember what I told Donna, but the next thing I knew, I had torn my entire knuckles hitting a sandbag without protection.

\- “I called Alfred, and he told me a fairly abbreviated version. I didn’t talk to him for the next three weeks. Still not a word from Bruce. I had to go all the way to the Manor to confront him, and he didn’t say anything. I wanted to punch him in the face or something, but I just couldn’t, so I went back to the Titans again. Then we actually met, and I just couldn’t stand seeing you in my colors and seeing how fond Bruce was of you. It was like you were his first son and I was just the practice run. So I took it out on you, and Alfred, and Babs. I froze them out.

\- “Then all the anger faded away, and I realized that I could let it destroy everything I had or I could be an adult and not take it on the people I loved. By the time I actually started liking you, you died while I was in space. I was in space while my brother was tortured and blown up. Worst of all, Bruce held your funeral before I came back. I returned to a grave and a Bruce I didn’t recognize anymore.”

Jason had nothing to say, because what can he say? He’s doesn’t have the authority to forgive Dick on other people’s behalf, and he doesn’t know if he can forgive Dick yet. In fact, if anything, this has nothing to do with him and everyone to do with B and Dick. He was just caught in the crossfire between them.

\- “I still think the Nightwing plushie, “Jason says, quietly enough that he isn’t sure that Dick even hears him. “As for the rest, I don’t know yet. You need to talk to B and Alfred and Barbara. Maybe we should all have a big conversation and talk it out, but I don’t even know if we can. Odds are that someone would get angry and storm out, and when I say someone, I’m not saying it will be B, but probably someone.”

Staring at the floor, Dick seems lost in thought, pulling at one of the Nightwing plushies’ threads. “Yeah, I think so too,” he says eventually. “You said you would explain everything when Damian is asleep. He’s asleep now.”

Reluctantly, Jason does – what he remembers of waking up in his grave, digging out, The Pit, Talia, the League of Assassins, the “work” he did, the teachers he learnt from and killed, his first meeting with Damian, his conversation with Talia, his escape to Hong Kong and then the USA. There is no point in sugarcoating anything, so Jason just doesn’t bother.

When Jason is finished, Dick stares at him for what seems like half an eternity to Jason, then gets up and spends half an hour destroying a punching bag hanging in one corner of his apartment. At the end of his “session”, he even kicks the bag once.

After, he takes a short shower while Jason kills the time reading some of Dick’s research into some Blüdhaven mobsters, none of which sticks in his head, until Dick comes out again in random T-shirt and sweatpants.

\- “Time for bed, I think”, Dick says. “I will take the first shift and then we can trade off in four hours or so.”

As much as Jason wants to argue and insist that Dick sleeps first, he is also exhausted and running on his last fumes. Some actual sleep would be nice, and in four hours, he will just trade with Dick.

(Dick doesn’t wake him up for the second shift – Jason wakes up six hours later to Dick hugging Damian close, humming some tune that Jason doesn’t recognize. In the darkness, he doesn’t look quite as frail.

(Everyone knows that Dick Grayson is as stubborn as Batman, as heroic as Superman and as kind as Women Woman, but even he is only human. There are moments he will tired, but as surely as the sun, he will rise again.)

The entire next week, Dick tries to convince Jason to go back to the Manor, and the entire week, Jason rebuts every argument Dick comes up with.

Bruce should know that Jason is alive – Jason isn’t ready, the Pit Madness will “activate”, and he will hurt B or Alfred or Dick or ~~Replacement~~ the new kid. (The first time Jason calls the new kid Replacement to Dick’s face, Dick looks like he swallowed something sour and has to actively bite his lips to not say something. It’s the first time Jason realizes that maybe Dick has his own issues with the Robin title.)

Alfred would be ecstatic – Jason wants to, but again, what if he can’t control himself and lashes out?

Barbara can fix him a temporary identity – Jason doesn’t think he can look at Barbara without wanting to hunt down the Joker and cutting off his head. (Of all the people, Barbara is the last person to deserve what happened to her. She wasn’t even targeted for being Batgirl, but for being Gordon’s daughter. Dick tells him about Oracle, about Barbara’s determination to not be a victim, but a survivor, and about the Clocktower.)

Jason offers to let Dick take Damian to the Manor, because Damian deserves to know his father – crucially, not B deserves to know his son, but Damian deserves to know his father; there’s a difference -, but Dick insists that Jason has to come as well.

Neither is willing to back down, and Dick even has to acknowledge that Jason has a point. No one -except maybe Ra’s and Talia- knows how Pit Madness works and what triggers it. If Jason thinks that B and ~~Replacement~~ the new kid are triggers, then it’s a no-go scenario.

In the end, they agree that Jason and Damian should stay in Dick’s apartment for a while, until Jason thinks that he can go to the Manor without being triggered or Talia comes for them, whichever comes first.

Because she will, that they both agree on. Talia may not be the best mother material, but Damian means something to her, some kind of means that she hasn’t told Jason about, or she wouldn’t have bothered with even continuing the pregnancy. And if she doesn’t, Ra’s will.

The real question isn’t whether one of them will come, but rather when and with how many ninjas.

One of the first thing Dick insists on is that Jason does not kill anyone else. “You don’t have to agree, but it’s a line _I_ won’t cross, “Dick says. “I know, I have a bunch of friends who are all fine with killing, but I don’t accept that when I am in charge, and I won’t accept from you, either. In self-defense, as a last option, when you fear for your life, fine, I can deal with that, but not the way the League of Assassins does it, not when there is another option.”

As reluctant as Jason is, he agrees. Maybe he has become so jaded that he thinks that some people can’t be redeemed anymore, the traffickers and molesters and rapists that can choose not to, yet won’t for no good reason, but Dick sees the exact same thing and he hasn’t given up yet.

He fights against Deathstroke almost every Thursday, and somehow, he still thinks that Deathstroke can change and be better. Jason doesn’t, he would just shoot Deathstroke in the face and be done with it, because Deathstroke has done some really bad stuff, but if Dick asks him not to, he won’t (for the time being).

The adjustment period takes a few days – Jason still can’t believe that Dick just dumps everything on the floor while undressing, Dick can’t believe that Jason would get tired of eating cereal after just two days, but Jason has never gotten the same kind of pleasure from eating cereals with like two drops of milk -, but in due time, they settle into what might be considered a “peaceful” arrangement.

Jason will wake up in the morning to feed Damian and prepare some small breakfast, most often some toast or fried eggs and bacon if Dick has bought groceries or waffles that one time he felt like it. Dick will take a shower first and then join them for breakfast, often eating both what Jason had prepared and a small bowl of cereals, before heading off to work.

While Dick is at work, Jason takes care of Damian and during Damian’s naps, cleans the apartment, washes clothes and sorts Dick’s “paperwork”, using post-it notes in the brightest colors to point out connections and points of interest.

(And if Jason sort of feels like Dick’s housewife, well, that’s his fault. Dick has never asked him for his assistance, but in between his legal work and night work, doing all the paperwork means that he doesn’t get that many hours of sleep. Add his lackluster meal plans, and it’s no wonder that Alfred sends him meal packets every week. Even then, though, Dick just seems to have stacked them in the fridge and only eats them occasionally.

(Plus, if Jason does the paperwork, he gets to do something with his time and Dick gets a bit more time to play with Damian. There’s a long list of people who would like to make Dick smile the way he does when he plays with Damian, and Jason can admit that he is on that list, although not as fanatically as some.)

When Dick gets home, Jason has either cooked something small or Dick brings something home, depending on the day. Dick plays with Damian for an hour or two, and then it’s bedtime for Damian. Usually, there’s an hour between Damian’s bedtime and when Dick goes out for the night job, so they have some private time just between the two of them.

A week and a day after Jason and Damian “moved” in, Dick “suggests” that they talk about Robin.

-“I know you don’t want to talk about Tim, but you will have to,” Dick says. “There’s a lot Talia didn’t know or chose not to tell you. If you still don’t want to get to know Tim, at least you will know how and why he is Robin.”

Thus, Jason finds out that Tim has been neglected by his parents and almost all adults for pretty much his entire life, that Tim has known who Robin and Batman are since he was way too young to get involved, that Tim became Robin to save B (and Gotham in the longer run), that Tim is apparently a good kid, and that Tim has looked up to Robin #2 practically from day 10 or something.

Honestly, it sort of makes him uncomfortable to know that his only fan was a ten-year-old. While Dick mourned the loss of his title and part of his identity, Barbara preferred Dick, and B switched between wanting Jason to be Dick and other times just wanting Jason at the drop of a hat, the only ones who saw Jason was Alfred and a kid.

Just imagining what kind of danger Tim could have gotten into makes Jason wonder what kind of parents Jack and Janet Drake are if they just left him home alone without considering that a ten-year-old is not old enough to take care of himself.

Catherine may have been a drug addict, but Jason always knew that she was at home during the day, even if she was high. Willis wasn’t around, but that was a good thing, since he wasn’t the nicest when he was around. They weren’t ever going to win a “Parent of The Year”-award, but they were around and sort of cared for him.

It does make Jason feel sort of guilty that he actually considered killing him, but Talia didn’t paint a very nice picture. According to her, B couldn’t wait to replace him with a shiny new model, but Dick says very differently, and really, between Talia and Dick, there’s really no way he would believe Talia over Dick.

In the end, Jason agrees that most of his anger towards Tim stems from what Talia told him, but:” that still doesn’t mean I won’t attack him,” Jason points out. “I feel sorry that he has had such shitty parents and had a bad life, but it doesn’t mean that I will like him.”

Dick just rolls his eyes, as if he was all that welcoming when Jason became Robin. “I know,” Dick says. “The Pit Madness isn’t logical, and we don’t really know how it works, etc, etc. But I know that you don’t think that Tim is a bad person. The people you killed were bad persons, rights? Murders, terrorists, child molesters, rapists and the like. Tim isn’t any of those. Tim is just a kid who wanted to save Bruce and help Gotham in any way he can.”

_Just like you did, just like you still do,_ he doesn’t say, but it’s there anyway.

He can’t make any promises, but he can try, for a kid who looked up to him when so few did and whose only goal was to save a sad man from destroying himself from the inside.

But as Jason knows very well, all goods things must come to an end.

Three weeks after Jason and Damian arrived in Blüdhaven, Dick comes back an hour earlier than he usually does with a bunch of small cuts all over and missing one of his electric sticks.

\- “Talia is here, “he says without pause, heading straight for his bedroom, where he digs out extra equipment from his closet. “You need to leave, go back to Gotham and head for the Manor as soon as possible.”

In less than five minutes, Jason manages to cram in a few of Damian’s clothes, the Nightwing Plushie, one of the blankets, and all the remaining cash into what they have aptly named the Escape-ASAP-backpack Jason keeps by Dick’s bed.

In the same amount of time, Dick has dug out his extra sticks, stuck some kind of temporary sticky cloth over the worst of the cuts, and put Damian in the baby carrier Dick insisted on buying. (It’s Batman-themed. Jason hates it, Dick thinks it’s hilarious, and Damian pees on it the first time Dick put him in it. Needless to say, Jason did not clean that mess up.)

By the time they’re halfway down the staircase, Jason realizes that he has no idea what the plan is, much less what he is supposed to do.

They did agree what must be the naïve plan ever: get Damian to the Manor. The real difficulty, though, is everything in between.

\- “Dick, where are we going? “Jason says in between gasping for air. With the weight from the backpack added, what was a pretty good workout has turned into what feels a lot like a part of the Ironman competition.

Dick, who is carrying Damian, isn’t doing much better, but he is fitter than Jason on account of him being active as a vigilante. “My car,” he says. “She’s old, but so far, she has never let me down. We will take the fastest route to Gotham and call Batman for backup.”

As much as Jason does not have any confidence in Dick’s “plan”, at this stage, they don’t have a lot of alternatives. “And if Talia shows up?” he has to ask. “What then? What if they try to blow the tires?”

At the second floor, there is the sound of a small explosion and a door falls from the sky, smashing into the ground. Jason has just enough time to recognize the color before Dick pulls him down the next staircase.

By the time they reach the ground floor, some of Dick’s neighbors have opened their doors, taken a look outside, and come streaming out of the house. One of them shouts “fire”. Another one shouts “bomb”.

One neighbor, probably somewhere in her late 30s with a toddler in her arm, sees them running, goes googly-eyed, and promptly abandons her apartment for safety outside, not even risking going back for any important documents she might keep in her apartment.

With a bit of luck, they reach Dick’s car without being attacked by ninjas. The car itself, Jason notes, is hot pink and could do with some maintenance, but it looks like it works, which is good enough for Jason at the moment. If they manage to survive this, though, Jason will have to tell Dick that you are supposed to keep your car clean.

To Jason’s surprise, Dick does not go for the driver’s seat, but the passenger seat on the side next to the driver’s seat instead.

Even more surprising, Dick throws the car keys to Jason, who almost drops them before somehow managing to get a grip.

It takes an embarrassingly long time for Jason to stick the keys in, unlock the car, and dump the backpack in the back seat. By the time he actually gets into the driver’s seat and starts the car, Dick has put Damian on the other side of the backseat and secured the baby seat.

Somewhere behind them, people start shouting. Through the tiny mirror, Jason sees a bunch of darkly dressed ninjas running through the crowd of people that has started gathering outside the apartment building. 

Shockingly, Dick’s car does actually work – when Jason pushes the pedal down, perhaps a bit too hard, it actually shoots forward and almost drives straight into another car before Jason turns the wheel sharply to the left.

\- “Hey!” Dick yells. “Be careful! If I had known you learnt how to drive from Fast and Furious, I would have taken the drivers’ seat.”

Rolling his eyes, Jason drives out of the parking lot in no time and onto the nearest road without using the indicators, like any true Gotham Driver (or Blüdhaven Driver, for that matter; none of them appear to use any blinkers at all).

This is the moment Jason realizes their most pressing issue: Jason has no experience driving in Blüdhaven, and therefore, he also does not know how to get out of Blüdhaven and to Gotham.

Whatever confidence he had in their “plan” dies.

\- “Dick, what way is out of Blüdhaven?” Jason asks, rather nervously although he would rather not admit it. “I don’t know how to get to Gotham.”

Judging by Dick’s expression, he too has realized the same thing. For all Jason knows, they could be heading in the opposite direction from Gotham, costing them time they could use going in the right direction.

At this point, it is rather apparent that they have not fully thought this plan through. Logically, the assumption has always been that Dick would be driving, since he A) is older and actually has a legal driving’s license, whereas Jason learnt how to drive with the League of Assassins, hence a lack of license, and B) he actually knows the roads. As such, neither thought they would come to need a navigator of any kind, hence why they don’t have one.

They do have their phones – well, Dick’s phone and the old phone Jason picked up in Hong Kong-, but Jason’s phone doesn’t have a navigator, and Dick might need his phone if anything happens and they get separated from each other.

\- “Take the next left,” Dick says. “That road will lead to the Police Station. At the Police station, take a right and then head straight forward. There will be a bunch of signs for “To Gotham”. If you just follow them, you will eventually get to Gotham.”

When Jason takes the next left, he sees a flash of a gang of black, mean-looking jeeps that just scream “League of Assassins”. The way they are grouped together is a dead give a way even to a person who has no idea there is such a thing as the League of Assassins.

One crazy driver in a Ford actually tries to slip through, but the moment one of the cars almost rams into it purposely, the car slows down and takes the next available side-street to escape.

Through the car window, Jason just about spots a figure he thinks has to be Talia carrying what looks like a very sharp, long sword in the passenger seat of the car the closest to them.

By the time they get to the police station, almost all other cars have disappeared, and those that are on the road all keep a long distance away from the jeeps as well as they can. One police car leaves the station just as they drive past, and even that car stops and waits for the jeeps to pass it.

\- “Got any ideas, Dick?” Jason says, trying to sound less nervous than he actually is. “Right now, anything would be good.”

In response, Dick rolls down the car window and climbs out with the upper half of his body, almost sitting casually on the car door. “Can you slow down and get closer?” Dick says, as if the jeeps aren’t being driven by assassins.

Against common sense, Jason slows down just enough that the jeeps can catch up on them, all the while hoping that Dick has a better idea than just throwing a bunch of wingdings at them.

The moment Dick starts throwing the sharp disks at the nearest car, Jason realizes that even Dick is very limited in what choices he can take. As few cars as there are on the road right now, there will be other cars that come after them, and while the assassins don’t care for any civilians that may be in their way, Dick sure does.

Unfortunately, despite Dick’s best efforts, the wingdings only manage to reduce the number of jeeps by a small number, not nearly enough to have any major effect. Talia’s car even escapes without a single scratch, despite Dick throwing a third of the wingdings at it.

Once he runs out of the disks, Dick has no other choice than admit defeat and to get back in again, slumping down into his seat like a puppet with its strings cut. The only thing Jason can offer is a pathetic pat on the shoulders and an even more pathetic “good job”.

By the time they get out of Blüdhaven and onto the highway to Gotham, two more jeeps have joined up to replace the ones Dick managed to get rid of. Worst of all, the new ones look sleeker and like they’re packing a bit more weight than the old version.

About halfway to Gotham, Dick finally decides to call B and tell him that they are being chased by Talia.

To say he does not sound impressed would be to state the obvious, but when Dick refuses to explain why Talia is chasing them with more than “it’s complicated”, Jason almost thinks that B will hang up and leave them hanging.

In the end, Dick has to explain that he “has something of Talia’s and she wants the something back”. The way Dick acts, it’s almost like Talia isn’t chasing after them with a whole gang of assassins in jeeps and like Damian isn’t in danger of being taken back. If he didn’t know better, Jason would think that this kind of situation is normal.

When Dick finally hangs up, one could be fooled into thinking that Dick is not worried at all, but Jason likes to think that he knows Dick a bit better than that. As much as Dick tries to hide it, he isn’t any less ~~scared~~ worried than Jason is. Knowing that is the smallest of comforts, but at this stage, he will take anything.

-“Batman is meeting us in Gotham,” Dick says. “He will bring the Batmobile, and Robin will take one of the bikes. I think we interrupted his date with Catwoman.”

Jason can’t stop himself from pulling a face. B doesn’t have “dates” as much as random hookups. On the other hand, Dick used to say that he had dates with Barbara as well, and Jason knew to stay clear of their patrol route unless he wanted to see some very heavy making out. The first time was bad enough; he never went anywhere near where they said they were going to be. His dates with Starfire weren’t any better, either.

The less said about Jason’s experience, the better for everyone.

By the time they actually get to within Gotham’s boundaries, Jason thinks that he’s run out of adrenaline and his nerves are shot all the way to hell. The only advantage they have is that the ninjas can’t shoot out their tires, because they would be risking hurting Damian.

Or at least that’s how it should be.

Just before they are inside Gotham, there is a loud bang from behind them, and the entire car sinks down on the left side in the back. Almost at once, Damian wakes up and starts to cry.

While Jason struggles to control the car with only 3 wheels left, Dick releases his seatbelt, moves into the back, and frees Damian from the baby car seat, softly singing some nursery rhyme Jason doesn’t recognize as he hugs Damian close. When Damian stops crying, Dick puts him in the front passenger seat and unclips his grapple gun.

\- “Jay, take Damian and run,” Dick says, putting the grapple gun next to Damian. “Go to one of the safehouses or just some place where you think Talia won’t find you and call B. Tell B to come get you. If he asks you anything, tell him that Nightwing sent you. He will come get you, okay? I promise, this time, he will.”

Before Jason can say anything, Dick opens one of the passenger doors and jumps out, like the stupid hero he pretends he isn’t. Jason has enough time to see Dick pull out his sticks before he takes a left turn into the nearest alley.

In his rush to get Damian out of Dick’s apartment, Jason forgot to pull off the baby carrier, but now, he is all too happy that he doesn’t have to struggle with putting it on in such a stressful environment.

Grabbing a squirming Damian with both hands, Jason quickly puts him in the baby carrier and secures him with the straps, then grabs Dick’s grapple gun with one hand and pats his pocket with the other to check that his cellphone is still there.

For a brief moment, he considers taking the backpack with him as well, but realistically, there’s no way he can run with both the backpack and Damian at the same time. One at a time is doable, but not two. Unless Talia torches the car or something, it will probably be there for someone to pick up.

With that decision made, Jason opens the door and gets out of the car, aiming the grapple gun at the top of the nearest building. When the grapple hooks to the top of the fire escape, Jason is caught off guard by how quickly he is pulled up almost at once.

It reminds of his time as Robin, running after Batman or Nightwing or Batgirl, the wind rushing through his hair, chasing after speeding cars driven by bad guys or stopping attempted bank robberies or punching the rogues’ henchmen or answering the Riddler’s riddles before he could finish asking them.

If they got hungry, they would get the greasiest food on the menu at the nearest open restaurant and eat it on the rooftops, to Alfred’s displeasure. Dick would insist on some random shake and get brain freeze from drinking too quickly. Barbara knew all the best shortcuts through abandoned backyards and dirty alleys and what cops who were corrupt and who were actually doing their jobs.

Once in a while, they would even convince Batman to play rooftop tag with them. Dick always cheated by bending at impossible angles at the wrong moment, but Jason had gotten pretty good at tagging him anyway at the end.

One time, they even managed to convince Harley, Ivy and Catwoman to play with them – well, Harley and Catwoman at least. Ivy just used her plants to get away, but she had stuck around to watch them play, which was more than what she used to. Then the Joker got out again, and they had to chase him down before he could kill more people, but it was fun while it lasted.

Fact is, this – running on the rooftops, jumping from one building to the other, grappling over distances he can’t jump over or to climb up taller buildings – is familiar in the same way that a person knows how to ride a bike once they’ve learnt. After such a long time away, he thought he would need to practice a bit before the real deal, but he doesn’t.

Best of all, Damian seems to enjoy it as well, judging by his sweet giggling. The faster Jason goes, the more Damian laughs and wiggles his arms in the straps, his tiny eyes shining with happiness.

To his embarrassment, he almost forgets that he has to find a somewhere to hide in all the excitement.

Then there’s a shout some distance behind him that sounds eerily similar to Dick, and he remembers that Dick is counting on him to get Damian away.

On top of what was once a food factory, Jason stops and hides in the shadow of a large, dusty machine, considering where to go.

The natural place to go is Crime Alley, of course. It’s his home more than the Manor, and he knew it like the back of his hand. By now, after his death, there has probably been changes, but even if the entire area has changed drastically, he is still confident that he knows where to hide the best.

But Talia will have sent assassins there. Talia knows about his history with Crime Alley and will have made sure to keep some people there, in case he went with his first instinct.

There are B’s long string of safehouses every other street. Since he has kept the safehouses abroad, it’s a safe bet that he has probably kept the safehouses inside of Gotham as well. They will have food, water and probably electricity, but Talia probably already knows all about them from when they were still dating. He did think it was strange B never let Talia come to the manor and insisted on hotels or a safehouse, but now that he knows a bit more about their relationship, he can really see the point.

On the other hand, B isn’t the only one who has safehouses all across Gotham. Dick does as well, for the times he needs to be in Gotham and doesn’t want to run into Batman. They’re all paid for by B, but under Dick’s pseudonyms. Jason visited one such safehouse one time. Dick and B had some fight, but Dick had promised to spend time with Jason, so Dick had texted Jason an address and Alfred had dropped him off.

The quality is different, obviously, since Dick spends less time in Gotham in between the Titans and Blüdhaven, but they’re not exactly bad, just a bit neglected. Talia is less likely to know where they are, if she has ever even bothered to care.

The only real issue is that it’s about an hour away by rooftop, which means he may be spotted by a ninja, but if it is comes down to it, he will do whatever is necessary to keep Damian safe.

Dick’s safehouses and B’s safehouses have two main differences.

Firstly, B’s safehouses are always outfitted with everything he could need – batarangs, extra equipment belts, extra cowls, medical supplies, antidotes for whatever poison one of the Rogues cooks up, cellphones, a bit of cash and credit card, copies of ID, and so forth-, but all those things are kept hidden behind walls or in safes. Dick’s safehouses have less stuff, but everything is stored the same way.

Secondly, B’s safehouses are impersonal. While there is some limited food in the fridge – energy bars mainly or stuff that can be stored for half an eternity before going bad-, all the furniture is covered in plastic sheets. There’s no dust, but that’s because Alfred hires a cleaning company that cleans it once a month. Dick’s safehouses get dusty, because he doesn’t use them all the time.

The fundamentals are the same, but the rest is down to personality and personal taste.

Jason had one safehouse that was only his. It was in Crime Alley (naturally), and he cleaned it up all by himself. B payed the rent under a fake name, but he was kind enough to never go there while Jason was still alive. Well, more correctly, Jason never caught any signs of him breaking in, but then again, he’s Batman.

Two weeks before he boarded a plane to Ethiopia and came home in a casket, Jason invited Barbara and Dick over to see what he had done with his private safehouse. Barbara had complimented him on how clean and well taken care of everything was. Dick brought “souvenirs” – plastic Batman, Robin, Nightwing and Batgirl statues that ended up in every window, blankets with the mentioned heroes, a few plushies for the bedroom, and a Robin towel with Jason as Robin for the first time.

Jason wasn’t too happy about all the junk, but ultimately, he didn’t actually throw any of it away. He couldn’t bring himself to throw away any of the things Dick brought, because Dick brought them there for him.

While staying at Dick’s apartment, Jason actually considered asking him about the apartment and if it was still there or if B had given it away, but he didn’t think Dick would answer. ( _Did you go there after I died and thought about me, or did you give it all away to ~~Replacement~~ the new kid? Did you think about me at all?_)

By the time Jason has tracked down Dick’s safehouse, turned off all the alarms and picked the lock, two hours have passed since Dick told him to run, and no ninjas have ambushed him yet.

To Jason’s surprise, the couch in the apartment looks exactly like the couch that was there before Jason died – an ugly orange thing with matching side chairs and a plastic table that has seen much better days. Its only redeeming feature is that it is fairly soft, not enough that you sink down, but hard enough that you can sit there for a period of time without needing to stretch and pop a painkiller after. (Unlike some couches in the Manor, which are hard enough to make anyone cry after five minutes.)

Damian likes it well enough to go to sleep on it, but then again, Damian sleeps practically anywhere he likes anyway, so that’s not a huge surprise.

With Damian safely sleeping on the couch, Jason pulls out his phone and dials one of the numbers Dick gave him on the first say in his apartment, his heart racing wildly in his chest with anticipation. In the silence, his phone sounds a lot louder than it actually is.

A minute passes without anyone answers, then another minute, then a third.

There’s a short beep, and then an automated voice says, “Please leave a message after the tone”.

Jason hangs up instead and waits five minutes before he tries again. No one answers.

There’s an itch in his fingers for something – a cigarette maybe? He hasn’t smoked since before he died, but the itch hasn’t completely disappeared. When he complained to Talia that he wanted to smoke, Talia had stared flatly at him until he gave up and did push-ups for a quarter.

The third time, he doesn’t even last five minutes – he hangs up after three minutes, forcing himself to take deep breathes before he does something stupid.

In the back of his head, a voice he doesn’t want to hear asks him what he expected, if he actually thought Batman would save him this time. The harder he tries to ignore it, the louder it gets.

In desperation, he scrolls down the phone list and almost calls the number to the Manor.

Alfred would pick up, he’s sure. To his knowledge, there has never been a day that Alfred has missed answering a call, presuming that he is at the manor or down in the Batcave. He would have to explain everything, but Alfred would believe him if he mentions something only the two of them would know. Then Alfred would get in touch with B, and B would come and get him.

Except Dick told him to call B, not Alfred. Dick promised that would B will save him this time – but he has to pick up the damn phone first.

So he calls again, against his judgement, for “the last time”, because Dick doesn’t break any of his promises and he needs B to prove that he still matters, despite everything he may have done.

One minute – nothing.

Two minutes – nothing.

Three minutes – and Jason has his thumb on the red telephone button.

\- “Batman,” a familiar voice barks out harshly.

It is just so typical that, when Batman finally answers, the words just stick in Jason’s throat. Finally, he manages to get something out: “Nightwing told me to call you. Talia wants something I have”.

There’s a long silence. “Where?” B says. In the background, Jason can make out what sounds like slightly muted sirens and honking cars.

\- “One of Nightwing’s safehouses,” Jason says and gives a rough explanation of where he is.

\- “Fifteen minutes, “B says and hangs up.

Jason has to stare at the phone for a bit just to confirm that B really just hung up on him like that. If Alfred had any idea, he would have scolded B about politeness and treating others with respect until B promised to do better next time. In fact, just because of that, Jason is going to tell Alfred and laugh the entire time.

With nothing else to do, Jason sits down on the couch and lifts up Damian, putting Baby Ninjas back in the baby carrier just in case something happens, ~~not because he needs something to hold to not throw his phone at the nearest wall~~.

At first, Jason thinks that he is imaging the quiet scratching noises. It’s not uncommon for them to have tinnitus once in a while in their field of work. In fact, Jason has had it even before he met B. That’s what happened when your dad turns the TV volume up high to mask the sounds of him beating up his wife and his kid, among other causes.

Except, it doesn’t sound the same. The tinnitus sounds he usually gets doesn’t sound anything like those scratching noises.

One of the first thing Jason notices about this apartment is the bright red light in the corner to signify that the alarm is on. Dick had them all over his old apartments before he got more digital alarms. When Jason picked the locked on the door, it blinked – it isn’t now.

In a flash (for normal humans), Jason throws himself off the couch and runs across the door to the balcony door, throwing it open as soon as he possibly can. The chill wind hitting his face works wonderful to wake him up to the situation.

Just barely swallowing down what would no doubt become a string of curses, Jason winds the grapple line around the balcony fence and climbs over, slowly releasing the line to lower them to the ground.

He is so caught up in safely getting down that he doesn’t notice the ninjas appearing out of the shadows on the pavement before he touches down. Worst of all, Talia is there as well, and she does not look very happy.

\- “Jason,” she says when he lands on the ground, sounding very calm and in control, not at all like she’s standing in the middle of a street in Gotham surrounded by assassins. “I must say, I am impressed. No one noticed you were missing for two days. The fire was a good distraction.”

\- “Talia, “Jason says.

One of the ninjas takes a step towards him, but backs away again when Talia just looks at him (her?).

All of them are dressed in the same dark clothing that all trainee assassins wear in Nanda Parbat and carry the same kind of sword that Jason trained with. Like this, everyone looks the exact same, without a trace of individuality except where their bodies differ – exactly as Ra’s wants them.

As much as he hates to admit it, there is no way he can beat all the ninjas and Talia, especially when he only has a grapple gun and they have swords and especially not when he has to protect Damian as well. The only reason none of them has attacked is because of the danger of accidentally hitting Damian.

\- “I thought you said all you wanted was revenge,” Talia says. “Didn’t you say that you would do anything for your revenge? I don’t see Batman here, or the Joker.”

He did say that, but that was before Damian, before he realized that Talia isn’t the woman she wanted him to believe she is, before he realized that his revenge would make Damian lose his father.

\- “Not at that cost,” is what Jason settles for. “Not at the cost of Damian losing his childhood.”

Talia just looks at him like she pities him. “Damian will never have a normal childhood,” Talia says. “He is an Al Ghul and the son of Batman. He must be trained and hardened for his future.”

\- “You sound just like your father,” Jason says.

Talia’s face hardens, her eyes turning into stone. “My father has taught me the importance of training and sacrifice,” Talia says lowly. “I was only a few years older than Damian is now when I began my training, and so must Damian if he is to fulfil his destiny.”

Jason starts shaking his head even before Talia finishes. “Damian is a kid, “he says, hugging Damian close. “He deserves to have a childhood without whatever torture Ra’s will put him through. Do you really want him to have to suffer through what you had to suffer? Is torturing your own son worth it?”

_It’s not_ , a voice that sounds like Dick says in the back of his mind.

\- “It will make him strong,” Talia says, as if that is reason enough. “Give me Damian, Jason. He is not yours to keep.”

Before he can tell her to go to hell or something, Talia is lit up by the bright light of the Batmobile, so suddenly bright in the middle of the darkness that Jason has to blink. By the time he opens his eyes again, Batman has already gotten out of the car and kicked down the nearest ninja without a hint of mercy. A second ninja is downed by a bright blue escrima thrown flawlessly at the ninja’s leg.

\- “Talia,” Batman growls, at the same time Talia says, “beloved”.

As one, all ninjas except the two already down move to surround Talia like a human shield, unsheathing their swords and brandishing them at Batman in an unnecessary show of “strength”.

Neither Talia nor B has any eyes for the ninjas, only each other. If Jason didn’t already know that they had been a couple, the way they communicate without a word would be enough to tell him. When B scowls (well, as much as he can with a mask on his face anyway), Talia presses her lips together tightly and glares back at B.

They are so caught up in their “conversation” that Dick can just slip past them and grab onto Jason, guiding him to the backseat of the Batmobile, without either of them appearing to notice.

One of the ninjas seem to take a step forward, as if to point out their movements to Talia, but the other, perhaps more experienced ninjas hold the ninja back.

While B and Talia have their argument, Dick slides into the driver’s seat of the Batmobile and leaves the two ex-lovers to “finish” their talk. 

Despite the years that has passed, at first glance, the Batcave doesn’t look all that different from before. There’s some new stuff and some obvious upgrades – the Batmobile, for instance, looks very different, and so does the “Batcomputer” -, but on the whole, most of the differences are in the small details.

Dick has told him of some of the changes – upgraded toys, rebuilt shower rooms with two separate sections since two of the new young vigilantes are women, some new training equipment for the new vigilantes, revamped infirmary, more high-tech machines, and so forth -, but Jason hasn’t seen them, and as long as he hasn’t seen the changes himself, it is difficult to believe that they have happened.

There’s no way to deny that things have changed, now that he is looking at it.

There is no way to deny the memorial B put up with his torn Robin suit.

For all of Dick’s warning, seeing it still feels like opening a wound he thought had healed. When Dick had told him about it the first time, he had locked himself in the bathroom until Dick had to pick the lock to get him out. Even Dick confessing that he hated it as well and would prefer it was gone didn’t make him feel any better.

Even the sight of Alfred, still in the same clothes as well, still in the same role as before, but years and years older, is not enough to make him feel any better. If anything, it makes him feel worse. B and Alfred spent months convincing him that he was a part of the family, and then B put up that thing after he died and called him “A Good Soldier”? He thought he was B’s son.

When Dick parks the Batmobile, Jason struggles to even open the door and getting out of the car. Some part of him, larger than he thought, tells him to leave, take Damian with him and just run. If B can reduce him to “A Good Soldier”, then he can just turn and walk away without remorse.

Just before he can, though, Dick appears out of nowhere, as if he can read Jason’s thoughts or maybe just his body language. “Jay, I have something I want to tell you before Bruce gets back, “Dick says.

Jason forces himself to take a deep breath before nodding. “Okay,” he just says. “I’m listening”.

Dick steps just close enough to Jason that Jason can reach and touch him if he wants to, yet far away that Jason isn’t entirely boxed in. “If things don’t work out with Bruce, you can stay with me,” Dick says. “He will be a jerk about this and insist on a million tests, and eventually, you will get tired of him. Or if you think that you’re too triggered by being here. Either way, you can stay with me for a while. I could use the company, and someone to clean up after me. You have options, just so you know.”

A single tear runs down his cheek and drops onto the floor. His throat feels thick with the emotions he tries his best to suppress. “Okay,” he manages to get out. “That would be fun”.

Dick just looks at him, eventually grabbing Jason’s hand to squeeze it instead of going for a hug like he probably normally would, but recognizing that Jason would not be open to that. “I like hearing your sarcastic comments during Action movies, you know, “he says. “And I like you making me breakfast and destroying my filing system and eating all my favorite dishes from Alfred and doing my paperwork for me.”

\- “Just not signing your name, right?” Jason says with a bit of laughter. “I like living in your apartment with you. You’re probably the best roommate I’ve had, including the rats on the Fifth Street”.

Dick pretends to gasp like he’s surprised. “Including the rats on the Fifth Street?” he says, with a laugh. “That’s the highest praise I have received. We can’t tell the poor rats, or they will get sad.”

Jason snorts. “They would be jealous that I found a better roommate than them, “he says. “And a better place to live. I think a fully furnished apartment is better than that place.”

\- “Even with the ugly draperies and the messy kitchen?” Dick says.

\- “Even with the ugly draperies and the messy kitchen,” Jason says. “We can get better, less ugly draperies, and you can buy a desk or a cabinet to store your paper in.”

\- “That would probably be very useful, yeah,” Dick says. “I like that plan. Maybe something green as well. A flower or something. Ivy probably has a plant we can adopt if we promise to water it.”

\- “Then we might as well ask Selina for a cat as well, “Jason says. “And Harley for something as well.”

\- “A cat might be nice, actually, “Dick says, perhaps a bit more seriously than Jason. “But for real, Jay, if you want to stay somewhere that isn’t here, you can stay with me for as long as you like.”

Biting his lip to keep it from quivering, Jason nods. “I have to talk to B, but I think that would be nice,” Jason says. “You are the best roommate I’ve had, and I like living with you, even if I think you are incredible messy and could learn to eat more than just some cereals.”

\- “Stop that, you, “Dick says playfully. “Alfred already tells me that every time I visit. I don’t need you to tell me that as well.”

\- “Then perhaps, Master Dick, it would be good for you to have a roommate who can cook a little”, a voice says behind Dick, making both of them jump.

\- “Alfred!” Dick says, turning around to face Alfred, with mock outrage. “Don’t scare us like that. We are still young. What would you do if we had a heart attack because you snuck up on us?”

\- “My apologies, Master Dick, “Alfred says without a hint of remorse in his voice. “Next time, I will bring a clock and play it for you first.”

To his surprise, Jason feels his lips shake with laughter. There is nothing better than Alfred sassing someone, especially if the person being sassed is not him. Some of his fondest memories (that he still remembers) is of Alfred sassing B or Dick in the Infirmary after one of them has done something really stupid. Even the Pit hasn’t been able to get rid of those memories.

\- “That would be an appropriate warning system, “Dick says, snickering. “Or maybe a bell.”

Alfred just gives him a long-suffering stare. “Perhaps we should move on to more serious topics,” he says, finally turning to Jason with softening eyes. “Welcome back, Master Jason, and welcome to the little Master as well.”

Jason smiles. “Thanks, Alfred,” he says with sincerity. “I’ve missed this place.”


End file.
